Land Use & Transportation

Featured Cases:

The Challenge

Whether creating a comprehensive plan, developing a site plan, or determining future transportation needs, land use and transportation decision-making can fuel conflicts and debates. Both topics focus on quality of life issues for residents and communities, involve planning for an uncertain future, and raise questions about what, and how, projects should be funded. Land use projects get to the heart of community values and a sense of place, typically surfacing a wide range of perspectives on land uses from open space to mixed-use, dense development. Transportation efforts trigger tensions among parties advocating for different modes of transportation, costs, access, and levels of environmental impact. These projects often span town and even state boundaries, forcing stakeholders to wrestle with regional issues without sufficient tools to do so.

Our Approach

CBI’s mediators have deep experience working on land use and transportation projects, and extensive knowledge of the associated laws and regulations. Our mediators are skilled at infusing innovation into highly-regulated planning processes, helping parties to explore and design creative solutions that have benefits for all. Our approach involves working with parties to:

Expand options by examining scenarios and models generated by architects, engineers, and other specialists

Use a range of visualization and group tools to envision possibilities

Explore trade-offs around cost, density, amenities, and other topics, with input from experts in development and transportation

Understand citizen perspectives and priorities through surveys, websites, and public meetings

Build capacity through training, writing, and techniques outlined in our book Land In Conflict

From helping create a vision for the City of Cambridge’s master plan to planning for transportation projects in Colorado, we have supported leaders and communities in creating a path forward on tough land use and transportation issues.

CBI has provided strong process design and facilitation for our complex land use and transportation study of the Sullivan Square area. They have managed all aspects of the project really well – facilitation, meeting planning, oversight of presentations, and more. In particular, I have been impressed with CBI’s ability to help us present complicated planning materials in a clear way, which has allowed for productive discussions with the working group and the public on potential solutions to growing traffic congestion in this area.